Politics is always a contact sport in the United States: Spirited debate, negative ads, sometimes wild accusations. They are all par for the course.But as we turn the corner on months of campaigning and Election Day 2012 can be seen in the not-so-far off distance, the debate will undoubtedly turn to yelling, the negative ads to outright falsehoods and the accusations to virtual fist-fights between the two major party candidates.The real casualties in this political war end up being people; normal, every day folks who live and work and love in cities and towns all across the United States. Their stories – who they are, what they believe in and how they want the nation to go forward – get lost in the haze that descends on the nation during a presidential election year.It’s a shame, because those stories are the ones that should be told and listened to over and over. We need to listen and learn from each other, and it’s hard to do that when the mass media is constantly focused on the latest gaffe or the sexiest mistake. Americans’ stories – in this project’s case, Americans in the so-called “swing states” that will decide who the next president will be – often get pushed to the back burner in news coverage, if they are covered at all.Elections are about ideas and hopes and opinions of those who the election is really about: People. And during the waning months of this presidential election year, that’s what this project is all about – talking to people, listening to them, giving their voices a platform that doesn’t seem to exist.

The stories captured on this site -- in written, audio and image form -- will I hope refocus the election lens.Welcome to Swing State Stories.